"Oy! Evans!" An all too familiar voice drawled out from behind. Lily turned around to see Sirius Black quickly striding up to her with a jingling bag in his hands. She eyed it suspiciously – she had seen more than her fair share of his little tricks over the past 6 years and knew it could not be a good sign.
"What do you want, Black?" She replied warily. To her surprise, James and his little band of miscreants were not with him at the moment.
"Nice to see you too Lily. Now, I know you have your little school meeting in a couple minutes so I'll make it quick. How would you like to go on a date?" He appeared elegant but relaxed, casually leaning against the wall, tilting his head to observe her response.
Lily's jaw dropped as she jumped back, utterly outraged. "NO! I will not go out with you, Black!" She felt this sudden urge to hex him, which she reined in with admirable restraint. Other boys had asked her out before of course but she had never felt so repulsed, not even by the guy who looked part-troll. In fact, not even James Potter with his overstuffed head had ever disgusted her to this point.
Because the real reason that Lily, a true Gryffindor at heart, felt so unbelievably angry was due to the fact that Black, a fellow housemate even, would sink so low as to go behind his best friend James Potter's back. Her Gryffindor values of loyalty and courage condemned nothing more thoroughly than what Sirius appeared to be doing right now. Her opinion of him, never very high to begin with, sank into the deep end of the negatives infinites.
Sure Potter had stopped chasing after her by now, to Lily's great relief, and had even grown up a little, to her even greater incredulity, but for his best friend to ask her out? How could he? Not only was Black betraying his friend, but he was also betraying his entire Gryffindor house!
Of course, the other possibility was that Potter had – well – gotten over her and given Black his blessing. This she had to admit was the likelier of the two. After all, he had stopped vacantly staring at her and asking her out for the past few months. And Black's loyalty to his friends had been the only virtue he had ever displayed in the past six and a half years. But this was only a little more comforting than the former. How could Potter have gotten over her so quickly?
Lily was annoyed now. Why did she care? Hadn't she seen him date a couple other girls the past few months without a backward glance? No, she wasn't in love with him, at least not yet anyway. But her ego was bruised, that she had to admit to herself. Was her head starting to swell to Potter's size?
But Sirius's face looked just as revolted by the prospect of going out with her. "Ugh – why would I go out with you?" Sirius replied, his perfectly carved face contorting in disgust, and his body shuddered at the thought.
Yes, this proved it. Lily's head needed some major deflating. Here she was, actually feeling slightly hurt at Sirius's tone, though truth to be told, it was more than a little insensitive. It also left Lily feeling rather confused.
Sirius continued, "I was asking if you'd go out with James!"
This left Lily feeling just plain stupid. Then, back to angry. "No, I will not go out with James either! I don't want to have anything to do with your crowd so forget it," she hissed.
About to walk away, she heard Sirius say, "What if I give you 5 galleons?"
"You think I can be bought?" Lily almost shouted – but not quite because she was in a hallway and voices echo and she preferred leading a good example as Head Girl.
"Ok, fine. I'll raise to 15. Just one date- 15 galleons! Think of the stuff you can buy!" Sirius replied.
Lily continued walking away.
"Fine, 25 then. 25 galleons."
Here, Lily stopped. That was a lot of money and she did need to buy some new books. Slowly, she turned around. "45." Apparently, Lily Evans could be bought.
Sirius tilted his dog to the side, like a dog considering a bone, and said, "30."
"This is your best mate here Black. I think you can afford at least 45 galleons." She was turning into a rather shrewd bargainer. "Besides, I'm going to be the one paying for lunch since I'm the one asking him. And the humiliation and gossip I'm going to have to face afterwards!"
"But I'm poor!" Sirius replied, trying out the pity card. "I've been disowned, cut off, I have nothing!"
Fine. If he wanted to play it that way, so could Lily. "But I'm muggle-born! The way the ministry's been going, I'm last in line. I'll end up unemployed, or a dishwasher in the Leaky Cauldron while you're out there making big money." She would have added something about Death Eaters but decided not to. After all, there had been rumors that his brother was a member. It probably wouldn't help her cause.
"My parents said they'd use every bit of their influence to prevent me from advancing in whatever field I choose. I'll be in line after you! I need that money!" Sirius said, trying to arouse pity in Lily's generous heart. He had never spoken of this before.
"Well you've got good marks!" Lily said. "And the Potter's will help you and they're really influential."
"You're Head Girl and have good marks! And allthe teachers like you. And Slughorn's got all this influence too."
"Well maybe he would have helped you too if you and James hadn't poured that balding potion on his head!"
"Oh yeah, that was funny." Sirius said, reminiscing of the good times.
Lily glanced at her watch. "Merlin! I'm going to be late! Just give me 30 then."
"No, 25." Sirius got her now.
Lily sighed. She was out of time. "Ok. Fine." They shook. "And you're not to mention me or the money. And don't talk about his heading being blown up." He said dumping coins into her hand.
"Sure, sure. I'll ask him right after the meeting." She waved her wand testing the gold to see if it was real. It was.
And with that, Lily ran off to the Heads meeting, and upon seeing Potter, even smiled. She just received 25 galleons for a date with James Potter.
